date=10/11/94
type=correspondent report
number=2-166573
title= Nobel/Econ (s only)
byline= Kevin Billinghurst
dateline= Stockholm
content=
voiced at:
Intro: The Alfred Nobel memorial prize for economic science has
been awarded to to three researchers for their analysis of game
theory as a basis for understanding economic relationships.
Kevin Billinghurst reports for VoA from Stockholm.
Text: The National Bank of Sweden announced Tuesday that its
prize of nearly one million dollars will be shared by the
Hungarian-born professor John Harsanyi of the University of
California, professor John Nash of Princeton University, and
professor Reinhard Selten of the Rheinische Friedrich Wilhelms
University in Bonn, Germany.
The three have pioneered the use of game theory as a mathematical
model for analyzing strategic interactions in the economic
behavior of nations, companies and individuals.
Game theory emanates from studies of common games such as chess
or poker. As everyone who has ever played or gambled, in such a
game knows, players have to devise a strategy based on expected
countermoves from other players. Similar strategic interaction
takes place in economic situations. The principle aspect of the
theory is the concept of equilibrium.
Professor Nash introduced the distinction between cooperative
games, in which binding interactions can be made, and
non-cooperative games. Mr. Selten was the first to refine this
concept to analyses of competition with only a few sellers.
Professor Harsanyi showed how games of incomplete information can
be analyzed, providing the theoretical foundation for a field
that came to be known as the economics of information. (Signed)
neb/kb/mh/cf
11-Oct-94 10:19 am edt (1419 utc)
nnnn
source: Voice of America
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date=10/11/94
type=correspondent report
number=2-166580
title=Econ Conference (l only)
byline=Barry Wood
dateline=Prague
content=
voiced at:
Intro: Speakers at an Economics Conference in Prague have
offered differing views about the progress of free market
transformation underway in Eastern Europe. V-o-A economics
correspondent Barry Wood reports from Czech capital.
Text: The first vice president of the London-based European Bank
for Reconstruction and Development, Ron Freeman, advises East
European businesses to invest and export further East, to the
countries of the former Soviet Union.
Mr. Freeman sees rich export markets in the East and says he
believes traditional trade patterns under communism give East
Europeans an advantage. But there is another reason Mr. Freeman
advises the Czechs, Hungarians, and Poles to look East. That is,
he believes an increasingly protectionist Western Europe is not
likely to permit a greatly increased flow of Eastern goods to
enter its market.
Marie-Helene Berard, of the French Commercial Credit Bank, was
quick to agree that high unemployment and slow growth make
Western Europeans reluctant to increase their imports of goods
created by cheap labor in Eastern Europe.
/// Berard act ///
We are now facing, again because of your success (in
making high quality goods at low prices), we are facing
a sort of competition that we just don't know how to
deal with.
/// End act ///
This dose of realism was not welcome to Czech industrialists at
the conference, most of whom have built their growth strategies
upon increasing their sales in Germany, France, Italy, and the
rest of Western Europe.
These industrialists dismiss suggestions that they should look
East. They complain that the former Soviet republics have no
hard currency with which to buy products and that economic
conditions further East are chaotic.
At the conference sponsored by the Bohemian Foundation, Mr.
Freeman was quick to praise the Czech Republic for its impressive
economic turnaround. Mr. Freeman, the number two man at the
European Development Bank, also counsels the Czechs to drop their
perceived antagonism against Western investment.
/// Freeman act ///
It is very tempting to regard the foreigner as a threat.
I think that for the Czech Republic, the foreigner is a
great opportunity. He is voting with his money here
(investing) because he has endless admiration for what
this country and its people and its government have
done in four years. And so do my colleagues at the
E-B-R-D, and so do I.
/// End act ///
Officials from the Czech Republic respond by saying they welcome
foreign investment. What they do worry about is that the flow of
foreign investment in the country is so big that the domestic
money supply is being made to grow at such a high pace that
higher inflation may be the result. (Signed)
neb/bdw/mh/jwh
11-Oct-94 12:09 pm edt (1609 utc)
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source: Voice of America
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A tovabbterjesztest a New York-i szekhelyu Magyar Emberi Jogok
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RFE/RL Daily Report
No. 195, 13 October 1994
AUDI FACTORY OPENS IN HUNGARY. The German Audi company on 12
October opened one of the world's most modern motor-assembling
factories in Gyor, northwestern Hungary, MTI reports. President
Arpad Goncz, Minister for Industry and Trade Laszlo Pal, Minister
of Environment and Regional Development Ferenc Baja, and
representatives of the Audi company were among the many guests
attending the inauguration ceremony. Audi chose Gyor as the site
of the factory from among 180 European locations. Audi management
council head Herbert Demel said that through the Gyor investment,
Audi has been able to gain a foothold in Central and Eastern
Europe, which is of strategic importance to the company. Audi has
invested 300 million German marks in the factory thus far and
plans to invest a further 430 million by the year 2000. The
factory will be capable of assembling 750 motors daily and
currently employs 200 people. -- Edith Oltay, RFE/RL Inc.
HOMELESS IN HUNGARY. The Hungarian Ministry of Welfare estimates
that 20,000-25,000 Hungarians are homeless, MTI reported on 11
October. Some 10,000 live in Budapest, where accommodations are
available for 2,000 and a further 500-600 can be given temporary
quarters. Some 60 percent of the hostels for the homeless are run
by Church and charity organizations. The Ministry of Welfare
spends 450 to 500 million forint annually on the destitute. --
Edith Oltay, RFE/RL Inc.
[As of 1200 CET]
(Compiled by Penny Morvant and Jan Cleave)
Copyright 1994, RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.
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A tovabbterjesztest a New York-i szekhelyu Magyar Emberi Jogok
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date=10/12/94
type=correspondent report
number=2-166749
title= Nobel Prizes (s update)
byline= Kevin Billinghurst
dateline= Stockholm
content=
voiced at:
// editors: updates with chemistry prize //
Intro: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has announced the
winners of the 1994 Nobel prizes for physics and chemistry. The
physics prize is shared by professor Bertram Brockhouse of
Macmaster University in Ontario, Canada, and professor Clifford
Shull of the Massachusets Institute of Technology, in the United
States, for their contributions to the development of neutron
scattering techniques for studies of condensed matter. Professor
George Olah of the American University of Southern California
receives the chemistry prize. Kevin Billinghurst reports from
Stockholm.
Text: The Hungarian-born professor Olah is credited with
completely transforming the study of elusive substances known as
carbocations -- electrically charged organic compounds which are
so short-lived in nature that they were once believed impossible
to study.
In the early 1960s, Mr. Olah and his co-workers discovered that
stable carbocations could be developed in quantity through the
use of new superacids. This scientific leap is of great
significance to the chemical industry, and holds a prominent
position in all modern organic chemistry textbooks.
The 1994 Nobel physics prize winners are honored for developing
extremely accurate methods for determining the structure and
activity of atoms.
Their studies are based on the use of neutrons flowing from a
nuclear reactor. When the neutrons are scattered by atoms in a
sample being tested, their directions change depending on the
positions of atoms, revealing the structure of the sample.
Changes in the velocities of the neutrons give information on the
movements of the atoms.
In simple terms, professor Shull has helped answer the question
of where atoms are, and professor Brockhouse the question of what
what atoms do. (Signed)
neb/kb/mh/cf
12-Oct-94 11:19 am edt (1519 utc)
nnnn
source: Voice of America
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date=10/12/94
type=correspondent report
number=2-166759
title=Nobel Chemistry Winner (l-only)
byline=Alan Silverman
dateline=Los Angeles
content=
voiced at:
Intro: A Hungarian-born American scientist is the sole winner of
the 1994 Nobel chemistry prize for his pioneering research that
has led to better gasoline and wider use of hydrocarbons. VoA's
Alan Silverman spoke with the honoree, University of Southern
California professor George Olah:
Text:
// opt Olah actuality //
I was overwhelmed and gratified.
// End actuality, end opt //
Professor Olah was up early as usual, having breakfast at his
Berverly Hills home when the pre-dawn call came from the Nobel
Institute in Stockholm:
// Olah actuality //
I don't think it will change my life. I think I was a
pretty good scientist last week and I hope to go back
next week and continue my work.
// End actuality //
The work he does -- described by the Nobel committee as "original
and imaginative" -- revolutionized the way science and industry
understand and use hydrocarbons, the basic building blocks of oil
and natural gas:
// Olah actuality //
What we are talking about is very common chemistry which
allows people to put high octane gasoline in their car.
If you look around, practically all the materials we use
from textiles to synthetics to plastics are made out of
hydrocarbon. These are also the raw materials for
pharmaceuticals and many other things .. So it touches
all of our lives, even if the public in general is not
aware of it.
// End actuality //
Born in Budapest in 1927, professor Olah left his native Hungary
after Soviet troops put down the 1956 revolution. He has lived
in the United States for 30 years and became an American citizen
in 1970:
// Olah actuality //
I am very proud that I come from Hungary, but I am also
very proud that I found a wonderful new country where my
children grew up and I'm very much part of it. // Opt
// many people said that Hungarians produced a
disproportionate number of scientists. I don't think
so, but many Hungarians found new careers .. New lives
.. In new countries and I guess first-generation
immigrants just work hard. But the message is that if
you pursue what you want to do, you are consistent and
you put in a lot of hard work, sometimes you get a
reward. // End opt // it's gratifying to get some
recognition .. Not only for myself, but for many of the
wonderful students I've had over the years.
// End actuality //
The first sole winner among the announced 1994 Nobel prize
recipients, U-S-C professor George Olah says he will give the
930-thousand-dollar check that comes with the prestigious award
to his wife of 45 years. (Signed)
neb/ads/fa/cf
12-Oct-94 12:45 pm edt (1645 utc)
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source: Voice of America
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A tovabbterjesztest a New York-i szekhelyu Magyar Emberi Jogok
Alapitvany tamogatja.
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and Information Service.
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